The Vegan Thread

Do you still have to prepare dishes containing animal products or do you work in a vegan place up there now?

A friend of mine is a chef and works in non-vegan places and, apart from assuming it's just professionalism, I don't know how he does it.

Yeah I did! I couldn't quite get it to taste like Oatly but it was great nonetheless. The trick was not to blend it at too high a speed or for too long - 30 secs at two thirds power on a Vitamix was good. Off the top of my head; 900ml water, 50g oats, a tablespoon of malt extract, pinch of xanthan gum and a pinch of salt. The only thing is that you need to strain it through a cloth but then I made biscuits from the pulp that was left.

To be honest I've not tried many cheese substitutes. I've tried most of the Violife range as we use it at work. Only had any sort of substitute like vegan sausages, chicken etc a handful of times.

I work is a very meat/dairy/fish heavy restaurant. I imagine this is a hot topic amongst vegan chefs. Luckily preparing animal products doesn't make me want to be sick like I imagined it would after a while, and I also don't get cravings for them once they're cooked. I guess I feel totally "meh" towards a nicely cooked piece of salmon for example.

Yes, I imagine it's professionalism that gets you through it. Have you thought/are you thinking of moving to a vegan/vegetarian place? I guess most chefs who haven't worked much lately will be glad to be working again.

Think oatly uses enzymes to convert some of the starches in the oats to sugar... could be making that up though 😅

Maybe why it’s hard to get it as good

You’re right! That’s what the malt extract was supposed to replicate. Made the oat milk a little brown in the process though.

I would love to, the dream is to run my own place some day.

However, if I’m brutally honest, I know that if I left my current place on ethical grounds, they would replace me in an instant. That’s not to bad talk my current employer as they’ve been amazing to work for so far, that’s just the way it is.

Thankfully there are loads of great parts of my job that more than make up for the handling of animal products; developing young and enthusiastic chefs, a fun and friendly team, flexible hours etc.

Cool I'll have a search in the vastness of the Internet. 👍👍

But that's the difference between me and you Oliver - you see the positive developments and want to bring people along at their own pace. I just want to throw rocks at the wankers.

I've been quietly vegan for the past year. Quiet in the sense that I've not really told anyone

Not possible - it's the first thing we have to tell everyone and all we talk about all the time - didn't you get the memo in your vegan starter pack?

Ha! My pack only came with these instructions...

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I know this brand have been talked about here before, but I tried this at the weekend https://www.iamnutok.com/shop/nerominded-black-truffle

Despite it's aesthetic challenges I was thoroughly impressed

I've talked to quite a lot of people who've started vegan businesses, and especially on the food side most have had to work in cruelty environments to be able to get the finance together to run their own show. This has now changed a bit, as there are so many more vegan businesses around, but it used to be a case of 'beggars can't be choosers'. Knowing Eamesy, he'll make the right decisions and he'll get there one day, but impatience is the quickest route to failure.

As regards motivations for veganism generally, the right insight and motivation is just hard to come by. What's generally easy to come by is the negative stuff--pictures of horrible suffering, things that make people feel guilty--, but the way we work, just eliminating that from being on your conscience doesn't make for a long-lasting, sustainable, and positive motivation, it just means a cancelled-out negative. Many, if not most, people who've come to veganism that way don't tend to last long. They need to understand that it's unremittingly positive without any downsides, that they won't miss anything delicious, and that it's the only way to be, really (although in a generation or two, old vegans may perhaps end up getting barracked by young fruitarians--well, you can dream, and I'd be quite happy if our generation achieved more veganism even if it later turned out that fruitarianism is better).

Yay! It's great stuff. Make sure you try the other varieties, too. My favourite is still the Foiegeddaboutit pâté, but Oh, Grate! is also delicious--much better than parmesan, I think.

old vegans may perhaps end up getting barracked by young fruitarians

Fuck those sanctimonious wee pricks...

No common ground?

Tomatoes?

Dont start the 'tom-aaahh-toes' 'tom-8-os' debate again!

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;)

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Too-may-toos

Just put this in the news thread, but I thought it might be useful here, too:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/21/german-jewish-leaders-fear-rise-of-antisemitic-conspiracy-theories-linked-to-covid-19

Attila Hildmann is a vegan TV chef in Germany and it's just awful that he seems to have adopted this disgusting nonsense. I haven't looked into it in any depth yet, but I wonder if there may be a connection between the origin of the virus through cadaver-eating and resulting conspiracy theories to which gullible vegans may be vulnerable. Either way, it's incredibly depressing.

Made vegan tortilla for the first time. It's alright!

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You gots a recipe?

+1 for that :)